Night Fury
by ryankrage77
Summary: Modern AU, follows the plot of the movie, but in a 21st century city. Title is a work in progress, suggestions are welcome. Also, everything is in Toothless's POV, because he's too epic.
1. Chapter 1

I was the night. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, one of the most powerful creatures of all time.

Or so the legends went.

I didn't care about the legends. I was having too much fun, soaring through the sky over one of the Humans largest homes. It unnerved me, how they had gone from small wooden settlements to huge sprawling forests of stone within my lifetime. And the light! It was never truly dark here.

Another reason the Humans could not be trusted.

And there were plenty. They were scared of me. They always ran away screaming, or more often, attacked me.

They hated me, and I them.

But I left these thoughts behind as I climbed above the clouds, pumping my wings, up, down, up, down.

And then I tucked them in, rolled over in mid-air, and dived back towards the ground. The wind whistled past my head as I carved through the air, ever accelerating. I wanted to roar, to let loose a plasma blast, but could not reveal myself. The Humans were becoming ever-more observant, and would notice.

The forest of stone approached me at an incredible speed, and with perfect timing, I snapped my wings out and levelled out, flew low over the top of one of the Human homes, and descended onto the Human settlement.

It was risky – It was not dark enough to truly hide here, especially close to the ground, but there were a few places.

I found an abandoned area, and glided down into a running landing.

The place stank – the sickly sweet smell of the breath of those noisy, unresponsive things Humans use to get around, and no plants, no other animals. And more faintly, sinister undertones of Human.

I blew a jet of flame on the ground to warm it up, and curled up to sleep.

I would leave in the morning – there was not enough food here. It was no place for a Dragon

I awoke to the sound of approaching footsteps. I silently inhaled. I knew that scent all too well.

Humans.

I listened carefully. There were several of them, sneaking towards me.

"What exactly is it?"

"Not sure. The _humanspeak_ said it looked like a giant bird. _humanspeak_ checked the _humanspeak humanspeak_, and it looked more like a crocodile. The only thing they were sure about was that it was dangerous. And large."

"This is a job for animal control. You don't need special forces to kill an animal."

"well, maybe – shhh! It's over there."

They did not know I could understand them. I did not get everything they said, but I knew what they were talking about. Killing me.

I opened one slightly. There were two Humans in sight at the other end of the room, and I could hear another three breathing, just outside. They could not see me very well. I was generally not seen unless I wanted to be, but this area was too light and small too hide properly.

But I still had every other advantage.

They did not know what they were up against, and I could see far better than them. And I could _fly._

They were nervous.

I slowly stood up on my hind legs, keeping my eyes narrowed to slits.

They crept closer.

I snapped my wings, opened my eyes wide, and dropped to all fours, crouching, ready to spring, a growl in my throat.

They leapt back, but did not run.

The smell of their fear intensified, though.

I lowered my head, and opened my mouth, which was already filling with fire-breath.

They seemed even more scared at this, eyes wide with shock.

And then I lit my fire-breath, and fired a blast at the Human on the right. He flew backwards, landing several metres away, and did not move, unlike me.

By the time he landed, I was already past him, spreading my wings. With a leap, I soared into the air. There was shouting from the Humans, but I ignored them and circled round, ready to head towards the colder, less inhabited areas.

But before I got more than twenty body lengths forward, something leapt at me. I swerved to avoid it, But it was too big, and wrapped around me.

My wings were trapped, and I plummeted back towards the earth. I thrashed, trying to break free, and there was a pain in my tail.

I hit the ground hard and everything faded into blackness.

When I awoke I hurt all over, but especially in my right tail fin.

I could still feel the net – I knew now what it was – and my wings were pressed tightly against my body, one foreleg awkwardly trapped.

I opened my eyes to daylight, and saw a human standing over me.

"A dragon... we shot down a dragon... no way." He muttered, staring at me.

I recognized his voice. He was the Human from last night, the one on the left.

He pointed his weapon at me, the ones that throw hot pieces of metal too fast to avoid.

"You killed Matt... so I'm going to kill you."

But he didn't. He just stood staring.

And then he raised his weapon to his shoulder, looking along the length of it.

He _was_ going to kill me.

I groaned and closed my eyes, and then opened them again and looked him in the eye.

He was younger than I had first thought, barely fully grown. Night Fury's live far longer than Humans, or almost any other creature for that matter, but mentally I was probably the same age as him.

"Please don't kill me." I whispered, thinking he wouldn't understand. But he did, he could _see_ that I didn't want to die.

So he looked away, breaking the connection, and took a deep breath.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the end.

There was a lot I hadn't done. There were places I had wanted to explore, I could have found a mate...

Then everything went black again.

**A/N: To clarify any confusion:  
>Toothless is thousands of years old, and has been around since viking times. However, because dragons more or less became extinct when he was young (about the same age he is in the movie), he hasn't grown up mentally.<strong>

**He's lived this long because in my AU, Night Furies are immortal, at least until they mate. They can be killed, but won't die of old age.**

**Also, having done a bit of exploration in his time, Toothless has pretty much figured out english. When he hears a word he doesn't understand (and has no way of guessing what it means from context) you'll see ****_humanspeak_**** in it's place.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I could hear a sound. So I wasn't dead. I had just lost consciousness for a while  
>It was a rasping, repetitive sound, and there was a pattern to it.<p>

_FFFFFTT-TTFFFFF-FFFFFTT-TTFFFF-SNAP, FFFFFTT-TTFFFFF-FFFFFTT-TTFFFF-SNAP_

I could feel the pressure from the net gradually loosening with every 'snap'.  
>I opened my eyes again.<br>The human was kneeling over me, cutting the net.  
>His weapon was on the floor to his side.<br>He was releasing me.  
>He cut the last rope, and I rapidly stood up, stretch my wings, and turned to the human, ready to kill him.<br>He was lying on the floor, having fallen back when I stood up, and looked terrified. I could _smell_ the fear radiating from him.  
>I growled in his face, and was about to tear his throat out when I remembered he had just saved my life.<br>His breathing was now coming in small gasps.  
>I screamed at him, to make sure he wouldn't bother me again, and turned and bounded away.<br>I tried to jump into the air, but for some reason I fell to the side, hitting a wall.  
>I dropped back to the ground and carried on running, just trying to get away.<br>Suddenly, I was flying – no, falling! I flapped hard, and slowed, but I was not balanced and could not go back _up.  
><em>I landed hard on stony, unforgiving ground. I stopped and looked around.  
>I was in some kind of hole in the ground, in the place where the bottom of a human home had once been.<br>The sides of the hole – which was more of a large pit – were steep, some overhanging.  
>I flapped hard, but could not get into the air. I didn't know why. I was too worried about getting away from the human settlement.<br>So I tried to climb the sides instead, but my claws would not dig into the hard stone, and I slid back down again.  
>I tried again. Same result. So I tried another time.<br>And again. And again. And again. And again.  
>Eventually I was too exhausted to continue, so I curled up and slept.<p>

When I woke up, it was still day, but the shadows were longer, and pointing the other way, so it must be morning. I had slept through a whole day and night.  
>I lifted my head and took in my surroundings properly. There were huge smooth slabs of rock, all steeply sloping or overhanging, that made up the walls of the pit, which was about five times my height.<br>It was not climbable, and I could not fly.  
>I noticed a huge puddle, and went over to drink. The water tasted better than it looked, and there were a few frogs on the other side of it.<br>My stomach chose this moment to rumble, and I eyed the frogs.  
>Dragons normally only eat fish, with a few exceptions, and I would usually not consider frogs as food.<br>But this was not a normal situation. Any situation where I could not fly was not normal.  
>They began hopping away when they saw me, so I lunged forward and tried to snap them up – but they wriggled into a crevice in the wall before I could catch them.<br>The _unfairness_ of the situation overwhelmed me, and fired several blasts at the wall in frustration.  
>I tried climbing the walls again, but with no more success than before.<br>Then I smelt Human. The one from before, who had injured me with a net, freed me, and got me stuck in this pit, where I would die.  
>He was peering over the edge at me, so I waited for him to look away, and then slipped into the shadows at the edge of the pit.<br>He climbed down, able to grip the rock much better than I could, even though I had claws and he didn't. Maybe it was because he was lighter.  
>He reached the floor, and took something off his back and put it on the floor. I could smell fish coming from it.<br>He moved his hand around the edge of the object, and it made a rasping _zzzzzzzzzzzztt_ sound. I couldn't see what he was doing very clearly from where I was.  
>The thing opened, and the smell of fish intensified.<br>He took a fish out and put it on the ground, along with a few other kinds of meat, and some plants.  
>I crept round to his side, and stepped out of the shadows, moving slowly so as not to scare him too much – not that I cared of course.<br>He saw me, and backed away, looking very nervous, so I retreated too.  
>He stepped back to the food, and crouched down, looking at me a lot.<br>He picked up the fish, and the plants, and held them out to me.  
>"I don't know what dragons eat, so..."<br>I moved closer, my stomach demanding that I eat the fish he was holding.  
>His breathing quickened, but he stayed where he was.<br>I opened my mouth, ready to grab the fish, but hesitated as instincts battled.

I needed food.

He was a Human.

"Toothless? I could have sworn you had -"  
>My stomach won, and I extended my teeth, lunged forward, grabbed the fish and swallowed it whole.<br>"...teeth."  
>He was clutching his hand to his chest, looking quite nervous.<br>An idea occurred to me.  
>At the moment, he was my only source of food. If I stopped scaring him, he might come back with more.<p>

_No no no no no no nonononono NO! He's a Human!_

_But you need food._

I walked towards him, and he backed away, until he fell over a stone and ended up sitting against the wall.  
>"I... I don't have any more!"<br>Oh. I was still hungry.  
>But maybe, just maybe, if I was nice to him, he would help me.<p>

_You don't need help. You're a Night Fury._

_You do need help._

I brought some of the fish back up, and dropped it on his lap, and sat back, waiting to see his reaction.  
>He looked at the fish, and then at me.<br>I looked at the fish, and then at him, trying to say he could eat it, seeing as he couldn't understand my speech.  
>He took a bite, but did not swallow.<br>Maybe he knew I was hungry and didn't want to eat my food?  
>Eventually, with some hints, he swallowed, but pushed the rest of the fish towards me.<p>

I was more than happy to eat it. Again.

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed.<br>**

**This fic will eventually cover the first movie, dragon riders of berk/defenders of berk, Race to the Edge and the seond movie. I know there will amost certainly be a third movie, but as it hasn't happened yet, I can't promise anything. Updates will be sporadic and slow. Sorry.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: apologies about the delay. I have no excuse, I am simply a lazy, forgetful peice of (insert rude word). Anyway, this is my favourite scene: Forbidden friendship! Without further ado:**

The human made a facial expression I had never seen before. The corners of his mouth turned up, and he showed his teeth, but not in a threatening way. I got the impression he was happy.

I tried to copy the expression. If he reacted negatively, I would know it was threatening.

It was harder than it looked, but I managed to pull my lips back without it looking like a snarl.

He didn't look scared or angry, so I guess it _is_ a way of showing happiness.

And then he reached out, trying to touch me.

_That_ never ended well, so I growled and darted away.

It was remarkable how similar the expression of happiness and a snarl were.

I didn't want to scare him off, but he needed to know I was _not_ his friend. If he wanted to bring me food, that was fine. Anything more was not. This was all his fault anyway.

I warmed up an area of ground on the other side of the pit and lay down.

I noticed a bird perched on the edge of the top of the pit, and felt a pang of jealousy as it flew away.

Why couldn't _I_ fly?

I lifted my tail to see the Human sitting near me. He raised a hand, still doing that funny expression.

Was it not clear I was only tolerating his existence because my life depended on it? I moved away again.

Later that night I discovered why I could not fly.

Half my tail was missing.

The entire right tail-fin had been sheared clean off.

It would not heal. And without it, I could not fly more than a few feet.

Flying was the best thing ever. I practically lived the for the fun of flying so high it became hard to breathe, and then spiralling back towards the ground, only slowing at the last moment, or just gliding along and watching the sunset.

And now I would never to be able to that again.

_Thanks a lot, you son of a Whispering Death, _I thought before I went back to sleep.

Early the next morning, the human was back. Or perhaps he had never left. He was leaning against the wall of the pit, scratching the ground with a stick. I walked over to see what he was doing.

He was making markings in the shallow mud and dirt. I knew the humans often used markings to communicate – I think the different markings mean different words or ideas – but this looked different. It was one big marking, not lots of little ones in rows. It looked a bit like the me that appeared in puddles, or the sea when I was flying over it.

I decided to try it. I simply used my fire breath to burn a line in the ground. I couldn't make markings as precise as the human could with his stick, so I compensated by making it much bigger.

I moved around the boy, nearly hitting him with my wings, not entirely accidentally.  
>I made a dot, and decided I was done. I sat back and looked at my work. It didn't resemble anything, a bit like the markings humans usually use. Maybe it could mean -<p>

The human was stepping on my work! I growled in anger. He lifted his foot off, staring at me.

Then he stepped on it again. I growled again. Why did he hate me so much? I didn't step on _his _work.

He did it again, but then he seemed to finally get the message and stepped over the line instead.

Then he began stepping around the big marking, avoiding the lines. He seemed to be trying to step into every part except the lines. I decided I didn't care anymore. It was just a stupid... drawing. That was the human word for it.

And then the human was standing right in front of me, with his back to me.

I snorted. He shouldn't be this close, but to be fair he didn't know that he was.

He slowly turned round, but didn't back away.

Instead he reached forward. I narrowed my eyes, and when he continued to reach forward, growled quietly. He moved his hand away, looked at it for a moment, and then closed his eyes, turned his head away and held his hand right in front of my nose.

I knew what he wanted me to do. I also knew he was letting me decide.  
>For some bizarre, inexplicable reason that only a human could understand, he wanted me to be his friend.<br>I hadn't had a friend in longer than I could remember.  
>I wanted him to be my friend.<p>

I leant forward, hesitating as I battled the reflexive urge not to, and pressed my nose against his hand.

It was warm and soft, not like I had imagined.

I pulled away, and then wandered off. I was glad I had a friend, even if he was a human, but I didn't want too much physical contact.

**A/N: Some tips for other writers:**

**Reference the movie. A lot. I didn't do it in earlier chapters, but I did for this one. It gives people the warm fuzzies when they recognise a line from the movie.**

**Be comfortable while writing. I put on some relaxing music and make sure plenty of food and drink is in reach. I also reward myself with food for each thousand words I write.**

**Proofread. Hopefully I fixed my mistakes, but please let me know if I missed something (gramar/spelling-wise).**

**Also, Reviewers! including Burke23, frosystuffs and pietorraven36, Thank you! I am writing for _you_. You are the reason I update.**

**The rest of you are awesome too. But review! I'll update faster!  
><strong>

**The next update should be up ny the time you've read this.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Did you spot the small spelling mistake in the last sentence of the A/N last chapter? The song for this scene is 'New Tail'.**

The Human came back the following morning. I noticed he smelt different – there was a strong smell of metal and fish.

"Heeey, Toothless, I bought breakfast," He said, dumping the container on his back onto the ground. I noticed he was also carrying something under one arm, but I had no idea what it was.

"I hope-" He grunted with effort as he forced the heavy container onto it's side. "I hope you're hungry."

Hungry? I was starving! The only I had eaten in days was a single fish!

Then he opened it, and fish spilt out. I moved closer, sniffing at the pile. "Oh, That's disgusting." he said as I advanced.

I know humans sometimes eat fish. What was wrong with it?

Also, why was he giving me this much food? Did he want something in return? I smelled the pile of fish, looking for a trap.

"Um, we've got some salmon, some nice _humanspeak_ cod, and a whole smoked eel."

At the same time he said it, I smelt it. One disgusting, poisonous eel. I knew there was a catch.

I growled and backed away, and then he picked up the eel and held it in my face.

I spread my wings and roared. He wasn't going to poison me!

"No no no, no," he cried, and threw the eel away. "It's okay!"

Then I remembered. We were friends. He didn't want to poison me, he just didn't know what dragons eat.

"Yeah, I don't really like eel much either." He said wryly.

Well, at least he remembered I liked fish. I quickly checked there were no more surprises, and began eating.

I was vaguely aware of him moving away and saying something, but I assumed he was just letting me eat in peace.

I never knew fish could taste so good! I definitely needed to return the favour at some point. Perhaps I could -

I froze. The human was sitting on my tail. I thought he was checking the wound, but my tail felt... balanced. He had somehow healed it!

I spread my wings. And lowered myself to the ground, preparing to do something I had thought I would never do again.

I leapt, and pumped my wings hard, heading for the top of the pit. I was going to be free!

And then I began tipping to the side again. Maybe my newly healed tail wasn't quite ready?

And then suddenly, the balance returned, I levelled out and shot upwards. My new tail fin wasn't quite moving the way I wanted though, and I was forced to turn as it seemed to move of it's own accord.

I ended up flying close to the ground, straight towards the pit again.

"Yes, yes, I did it!" I heard the human yell from... behind me?

He was still hanging onto my tail! Maybe I should have waited for him to move before taking off, but never mind, I could put him down now. I flicked my tail and he fell off... I and I fell down, the balance disappearing almost immediately.

I hit the ground hard, and slid straight over the edge the pit and fell down into.

I was still trapped.

I looked at my tail, wondering what went wrong, and saw that the human hadn't healed it at all – he had made a fake tail fin to replace the missing one. And it didn't work without him.

Just as I wondering whether too be mad at the human for not properly freeing me or be hopeful I would one day fly again, he appeared at the edge of the pit and climbed down.

"Yeah! How about that, Toothless? It worked!" He yelled... triumphantly? Well, I _had_ flown- even if it was only for a short while.

Also, what did 'Toothless' mean? Was it... a name?

I couldn't remember my real name. I had been the only one of my kind for so long, I didn't need one. I was simply 'The Night Fury'. But if I had a friend, he would have to call me something, and I quite liked the sound of 'Toothless'.

I gave a gentle, rumbling croon. He seemed to like those soft noises. With the language barrier, it was the closest I could get to a 'thank you'.

"Okay bud. We've proved we can get you flying again. Now we just have to perfect it!"

So, he was going to help me fly again! I made another gentle rumbling noise, and then tried the happy expression again. He did too.

"That, Toothless, Is called a smile. I think you know what it means."

And then he hit himself in the face. He was certainly strange.

"What am I doing? I haven't told you my name yet! I'm Hiccup. Or at least, that's what everyone calls me."

Hiccup. Another name I liked. But then maybe, I just hadn't used names in so long I liked them all.

I lay down, and he lay down to, leaning against my side. He sighed, and I sensed his mood change, from happiness to worry.

"My dad is still looking for you. He's the head of the police. Which are people who make sure everyone behaves, in case you don't know. And on top of that, he thinks there are more of you."

More Night Furies? Or even just more dragons? I lifted my ears and turned my head toward him. I didn't want to miss this!

But he was frowning, staring at me. He rubbed his chin in thought and sat up straighter.

"Do you understand me?" He asked suddenly.

I wondered whether to tell him or not. So far, he had talked to me, but in a way that suggested he thought I was just another animal. Well, I am an animal, but I'm a lot smarter than most of the other animals. He was talking to himself just as much as me.

And I liked that.

But if he knew I understood most of the words he said... That would change.

I may understand what he says, But I'm a dragon. I don't think like a human. Humans are unpredictable, and it's difficult to understand why they do what they do. I could sometimes figure it out. For example, Hiccup wanted to be my friend because he was lonely – he was weak and small, so nobody wanted to be his friend. Except me.

If he knew I could understand him, he would expect me to behave like a human.

Well, he was just going to have to learn I don't.

I nodded. A silent of saying 'yes' for humans.

His eyes widened.

"You understand English?"

I wasn't entirely sure what 'English' was, but I assumed it must be the name of the human language. Humans love naming things – even words have names, it seemed.

I nodded again.

"Can you speak it?"

I shook my head. Maybe the language barrier wasn't as much of a problem as I thought. After all, most of communication is silent.

He leaned back again. "Wow. I knew you were intelligent. But not _that_ intelligent. I guess it's just stupid human arrogance, assuming anyone different from us is inferior."

Hiccup was also more intelligent than _I_ expected. He had worked out one of the biggest flaws of his species. I lay my head on my paws again.

"Maybe I could teach you sign language and we could communicate better" he said, thinking out loud.

A chance to remind him I was a dragon. An intelligent dragon who could understand English, but still a dragon.

I growled, the universal way of saying 'no'.

"Okay, scratch that. It wouldn't work with paws anyway. You could learn to write though."

I growled again.

"No? Okay. I'll guess we'll just stick to yes and no then."

I made a gentle rumble.

"Don't you want to communicate?" he asked.

I already was. He didn't seem to get it though, so I just growled no.

"But you already are." He said, confused.

I looked at him and nodded.

"Oh, Oh, I get it. Say no more bud."

There we go.

"Anyway, My dad wants you and any other dragons dead, and I can't tell anyone about you because then he'll find out. So, we'll get you flying as soon as possible, and then you can leave." He said. I noticed the bitterness in his voice. He didn't want me to leave.

He stood up. "See you later, bud. My dad will be wondering where I am soon." and he began climbing out of the pit.

He was going to leave me here? I thought about it, and then understood. I was his only friend. He didn't want me to go, so he was making sure I couldn't.

I wouldn't get far without being able to fly anyway.

**A/N: I know, I know. I really didn't want toothless to let Hiccup know he understands english. But it just wrote itself, and it seemed like it had to happen. I made Toothless capable of undertanding english. Hiccup deserves to know. After all, Hiccup is the one dealing with him.  
>I don't intend to mention it much. If you really hate it, tell me and I'll rewrite it.<strong>


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